Category: Life

There’s nothing like a bite from a big, unidentified spider to get your imagination running wild.
Seems I was inconveniencing one of our arachnid friends in the backyard today by using the garden chair he’d chosen as his own. I felt something on the back of my leg and went to brush it off, but there was nothing there. After a bit of investigation, I found I’d been resting my calf over the opening to the web of a fairly large black spider, which was cowering at the back of his web. I saw that there was a little discoloration at the back of my leg, which I hadn’t noticed before.
Now, at this point, things started to slow down, so I could carefully, and in great care and detail, imagine a number of different absolute worst outcomes of this situation. We live in a place frequented by a number of quite poisonous spiders, the most serious of these being the redback, which we’ve dug out of various crevices already in the last few years. It was important to retrieve this bugger and ask for his ID so we could figure out what was going to happen from here.
I stopped short of emptying the entire can of bug spray into the web.
Ainslie is having an afternoon nap at this point. Do I wait and see if I’m affected? Would it be too late for me to act if I did wait any longer? Are these pains I’m getting now something I’m imagining, or are they caused by the bite? I can feel a few numb aches in my right leg, and I think I’m getting a bit dizzy. I’d better wake her up.
Waking Ainslie up with the phrase ‘I’ve been bitten by a spider and I might need your help’ is pretty effective. (Far more effective than simply “it’s morning, sweetheart”.) She jumps up and we go in search of our fanged friend, who has limped off to a corner of the outdoor area. I gather him up in a cup while Ainslie dials Poison Information.
According to the experts at the other end, It seems that if your spider doesn’t have a red stripe, you’re pretty safe, in WA at least. Ours doesn’t. It’s a big, black mean-looking one, which I later identify as a Black House Spider. Nothing too nasty, but you can get in a bit of pain if he gets a good bite. I’m not hurting too badly, but we sort out the area to make sure it’s not going to get infected.
Looks like the emergency is over, without me having to rush to hospital for redback anti-veneme. It’s only meant a little discomfort in that leg, and a few aches. Still, I was a little worried there for a while. It’s amazing to think such a tiny beast has the ability of so subtly and covertly making you so seriously ill.
EPILOGUE: It’s time to nuke the chars with some surface spray, I think. In cleaning out the other spider webs underneath the other garden chairs today, I do find a juvenile redback.
The little choices in your day, like where you choose to sit, can have a big consequence.

This is really quite brilliant (and. once again, an idea I had ages ago but never got around to fulfilling). An online music quiz with a difference. Just like Mastermind, you can choose your own band to customize the questions. Here’s a link to my favourite game.

With all the seminars complete, here endeth the adventure. Today, I delivered the final seminar, and had an opportunity to catch up with a client at the Belgian Beer Cafe, on St Kilda Road. The unique thing here is the rigmarole the bartenders go through to clean the glasses for you, in front of you. It’s the sort of attention to cleanliness I only adhere to with the WRX. It’s all very civilised and lovely sitting outside in some wonderful Melbourne weather.
I highly recommend the practice of ‘Lightning Leave’, as I’ve called it – someone’s probably made money out of calling it something differently in an executive management book somewhere. Ainslie told me about the concept when kidnapping me earlier this year. It’s where you take only a few days out of your schedule to completely divorce from your work routine, rather than try to distance yourselves over a period of weeks. The theory goes that it’s easier to ‘shut down’ when you’re only away from work for a few days and are able to recover quickly, than to plan a major getaway which requires weeks of planning and recovery either side, and another week of ‘winding down’. The fact that you’re ‘switching off’ almost completely during the time you’re away means that you return refreshed and ready to get stuck back in. That’s not to say I’m going to do away completely with the weeks-long holiday concept, but getting away from it all for a four day weekend every now and again is something I’ll be doing a lot more from here on. It’s been a good break.
Back to the tasks at hand.

This morning’s seminar seemed to go well, despite the fact that I ad libbed this bizarre analogy in the seminar about manufacturing toilet paper. I don’t know what I was thinking. I think I got the point across, but I think it was – what’s that word again? – inelegant.
One of the things i like most of all about Perth is the lack of road tolls. It means I can get away with virtually no cash in the west, but I’m constantly refilling my change drawer over here.
A serendipitous discovery this afternoon – that both houses of Parliament were sitting in Canberra today – a rare confluence of events. I decided to go and check out the building for the first time.
The amount of marble that went into the entry hall may seem extravagant, but it’s only because of the way this place so perfectly reflects what Australia is all about. It’s not a foreboding, aloof structure, but a masterpiece of design which subtly welcomes you in. It really feels almost like a giant formal loungeroom than a vast center of government (Like the Parliament Houses in the UK and what I’m assuming things are like in Washington). I like it a lot.
The first thing that hit me about the chambers, after watching them on TV for so long, is that the proportions are so different in reality. I’d always imagined a long, narrow chamber, but when you visit the public gallery, looking down from above, it’s so short. It’s not smaller than I imagined, just a different shape, and taller. Much like Mark Latham.
One of the other things I was impressed by was an exchange which I’ll illegally reproduce from Hansard, here:

Ms KING (3.50 p.m.) – Mr Speaker, you would be aware that the President of the Senate yesterday agreed to a request by the Senate to fly the Eureka flag in the foyer of the Senate chamber. Is there any news you might like to share with the House about the flying of the flag in the House of Representatives foyer?
The SPEAKER – I thank the member for Ballarat for the question. As she is aware, I have written to her agreeing with the President of the Senate that, together with the Australian flag, the Eureka flag will be flown in the foyer at the entrance to the House of Representatives during daylight hours on 3 December 2004 for the 150th anniversary events of the Eureka Stockade. I am happy to table a copy of that letter.
Mr Latham – Mr Speaker, I thank you for that fine gesture. It is an appropriate thing to do. It is a very significant day in our national history. We on this side of the House commend your generosity, and we hope it is shared by the Prime Minister on Friday.
Ms King – Mr Speaker, I would also like to thank you, and I am sure the people of Ballarat will be very pleased with the decision.

The thing I like about the exchange is not only that the Parliament is willing to do things a little out of the ordinary if the occasion demands, but that the parliamentarians actually take the time to say thanks. It’s good manners. Of all things, I didn’t think that was something I’d be seeing in Parliament today.

Continue reading Dave’s Brakeslam Tour – Day Five – Canberra

Indiana’s my first ‘real’ niece – born to my Sister Sam and her husband Steve in October. She’s cute as a button, and seems to understand that her Uncle David is the one with the steady hand. I’m proud to say I’ve not handed her back to Mum sad today :-).

Having made it to Dad’s, yesterday, I’m off to Sydney to see Indiana, my new niece.
Last night, I think Dad, Paul (his mate) and myself came perilously close to solving the Middle East crisis, as well as agreeing on some of the more memorable moments of ‘Seinfeld’. (Of all the topics I could have imagined Dad and I sharing an interest, the last of those would have been Seinfeld. Its weird what you discover your parents are into after all these years. Mum’s into Ricky Martin. Never saw that one coming, either.)

I’m starting out from Coff’s Harbour two hours late – I’m still trying to understand exactly what timezone I’m in. The sun’s getting up much, much earlier than I am.
There’s four and a half hours before I need to be In Sydney, and there’s 500 kilometers to go. This might be tight. Probably going to have fewer stops today. This Pacific Highway is going to make it tricky – I can’t believe the amount of speed changes this stretch of road forces on you. For some reason, the NSW government gives you ample warning of the static speed cameras stationed outside each township, and they’re usually 60km/h limits, so it’s fun to see the rev heads slam on the brakes and jump on the accelerator every half an hour or so.
The warning signs of schoolies are all around – feet, arms – and more – dangling out of oncoming traffic.
There’s just something… well.. wrong about driving through Kempsey (the birthplace of country music legend Slim Dusty) and listening to Top 40 radio at outrageous volume levels.
Something I never really thought about Port Macquarie: “God Lives Here”, according to a roadsign. I’m not doubting its veracity, but I’d imagine there’s a heck of a lot of pressure to keep your gardens tidy.

40 degrees outside. I’m going inside for one of the famous Oak milkshakes we used to stop here for many years ago on the way to holidays in Forster. I’m disappointed I missed the turnoff to Forster on the way here. Well, if they’re not going to signpost it properly, it might be another 20 years before I get there.
It seems our beloved Oak isn’t living here any more. The factory still seems to be here, but the local Hungry Jacks has taken over the franchise, and the famous milkshake menu is relegated to one tiny section of the dining menu. (If you’re visiting here, it’s tucked away on the top left. You have to squint to see it.)
It’s still a brilliant shake, though; exactly as I remember it. I wish I knew the secret.
I’m running about half an hour later than I expected, which isn’t bad for an 800K trip.

There must be a different fundamental outlook on life here in a place where the land is fertile and lush. I think it would be easy to be optimistic about life and the world in a place where things are always growing and life is abundant. In a place like Perth, or even further afield in the goldfields, (with dry, windblown sandhills and pale, brittle plantlife barely clinging to their fragile existence) it would be quite a different worldview.

Astonishingly beautiful weather on the easternmost part of Australia – 26 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. This is the sort of weather for taking photographs. I realise halfway through that instead of thinking how this will look on the mantlepiece or in the photo album, that I’m instead thinking of how this will look as a wallpaper on the home computer. Does anyone else think like that?
The houses, especially around the lighthouse on the headland are quite huge and impressive. I think Paul Hogan lives around here somewhere.
The sunroof is open and all the windows are down. I’m getting seriously sunburnt. I have no idea what time it is, because I crossed the border between daylight and non-daylight time. I don’t know how long I have to travel today.
Wheee!